The invention relates to an assembly produced from a vacuum pump and a chamber where an intake tract extends between the chamber and the vacuum pump. The vacuum pump is a liquid ring machine. The invention also relates to a method for evacuating a vapor-filled chamber.
Autoclaves, as used, for instance, in hospitals for sterilizing, for example, hand towels, bedding or also instruments, belong to the applications where a vapor-filled chamber is evacuated. Hot vapor is introduced into the chamber for sterilizing purposes. Once the sterilization has been completed, the vapor is sucked out of the chamber of the autoclave such that the sterilized objects are able to be removed. The vapor as such cannot be simply output to the environment. In the process, the vapor is consequently condensed such that only the condensate remains.
A vacuum pump, which is connected to the chamber of the autoclave by means of an intake tract, is used to suck out the gas. In the case of assemblies up to now the intake tract is provided with a heat exchanger to condense the vapor, by way of which heat exchanger heat is removed from the vapor in a volume that ensures that the vapor condenses. The condensate is sucked in by the vacuum pump and output at atmospheric pressure.
Heat exchangers where the vapor to be condensed is guided past cooled plates are usual, for example, as heat exchangers in the intake tract. The disadvantage of such heat exchangers is that large volumes of water are necessary in order to achieve a low condensation temperature.